“Pinchas... zealously avenged My cause among the
Israelites.... Therefore, tell him that I have given him My
covenant of peace.” (Num. 25:11-12)

Why did God present Pinchas, the archetypical zealot, with a
covenant of peace? What was the nature of this covenant?

The Prayer of Shemuel HaKatan

The Talmud (Berachot 28b) recounts that Rabban Gamliel, who headed
the Sanhedrin in Yavneh after the destruction of Jerusalem, saw the
need to make an addition to the daily prayer. The Jewish people
needed heavenly protection against heretics and informers. But
Rabban Gamliel had trouble finding a scholar capable of composing
such a prayer.

In the end, Shemuel HaKatan (‘Samuel the modest’) agreed to
formulate the prayer, called BirkatHaMinim. Why was it so
difficult to find a scholar to author this prayer? What made Shemuel
HaKatan so qualified for the task?

By its very nature, prayer is a medium of harmony and
understanding, full of kindness and love. Any scholar on an
appropriate spiritual level is capable of writing prayers that are
fitting for a holy and wise nation.

A prayer decrying slanderers and heretics, however, touches upon
powerful emotions of hostility and anger. We naturally feel hatred
towards our foes and the enemies of our people. To compose a
fitting prayer against enemies requires an individual who is
utterly pure and holy, one who has succeeded in eliminating all
hatred and petty resentments from his heart. In order that such a
prayer will be pure, its sole intention must be to limit the damage
and correct the evil caused by the wicked, as they impede the
world’s spiritual and ethical progress. It is for the sake of this
pure, unselfish motive that we plead that God vanquish the wicked
and foil their evil plans.

Even though one’s initial motives are pure, if he is subject to
even the slightest feelings of animosity that are naturally aroused
when one feels attacked, his thoughts will be tainted by personal
hatred, and his prayer will deviate from the true intent. Only
Shemuel HaKatan was a suitable candidate to compose this difficult
prayer. His life’s motto was “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls”
(Avot 4:24). Shemuel succeeded in removing all feelings of enmity
from his heart, even for personal enemies. Only this saintly
scholar was able to compose a prayer against slanderers that would
convey the feelings of a pure heart, expressing the soul’s inner
aspirations for complete universal good.

Refining Zeal

From Shemuel HaKatan we see that zealotry is not a simple matter.
Zeal must be carefully refined to ensure that it is truly for the
sake of heaven. As Rav Kook explained in Orot HaKodesh (vol. III, p.
244):

“We need to refine the attribute of zeal, so that when it enters
the realm of the holy, it should be a pure zeal for God. Since
zealotry often contains some slight influence of human failings,
our powers of self-examination must determine its primary motive.
We must ensure that it is not based on personal jealousy, which
rots one’s very bones, but rather a zeal for God, which provides a
covenant of peace.”

When God gave Pinchas a covenant of peace, He affirmed that
Pinchas’ act of zealotry — defending the Jewish people from
idolatrous influences — was performed with pure motives. Only God
could testify as to the purity of Pinchas’ zeal, that he had acted
solely for the sake of Heaven, without any admixture of pettiness
or personal animosity. Pinchas’ zeal was the product of his burning
love for God, an expression of his desire to bring true peace
(shalom) and perfection
(shleimut) to the world.